Online retailers register big spike in demand as festive season sale kicks off

BENGALURU: Amazon India's festival sale, which started a day earlier than Flipkart's, saw the platform getting more than a billion hits in the first half of the day, the company said. This makes it more unique visitors that the etailer has got than all five days of Diwali sale last year, it said. Amazon is offering Rs 4 crore worth prizes, including a flat and cars for shopping on its app during these five days.

Amazon said that it sold more than a lakh units in the first 30 minutes. The first day saw over 20 times the usual demand in consumer electronics category including TVs, washing machines, and microwave ovens. Moto G and Redmi phones were the most popular products with a seven-fold jump in sales. Apparel also saw a six-fold jump in sales, the company said.

Meanwhile another online marketplace Shopclues also said its sales doubled during the first day of the festive offers. "We have experienced about 90 percent growth in terms of visits and orders and about 190 percent growth in GMV and conversion rate. Overall, we expect a better festive season this year,” said Nitin Aggarwal, AVP, marketing.

The stakes are high for e-commerce firms this year as they compete for leadership position. RedSeer Analytics, an e-commerce consultancy, calculated that the e-commerce players in India did business worth $1.5 billion in October last year. The sales during the festive season are usually 3-4 times that in the usual business days, says RedSeer. Snapdeal also introduced Snapdeal Gold, a la Amazon Prime, that offers free and fast delivery.

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